Well, the hike on Saturday turned out to be a bust. I checked the weather forecast several times on Friday and again very early Saturday morning before we left, and it kept saying that there was a 30% chance of showers. So much for trusting the Weather Channel.
As soon as we got to Ferron and made the first turn off the highway, it started raining. The farther east we drove, the worse the rain got. The roads also got worse the farther we went, and eventually I just couldn’t keep my truck going in a straight line along the road–it kept going sideways on the very slippery clay surface. We stopped and checked the NOAA weather report on one of my FRS radios, and their forecast called for rain all day long, so we decided to turn back and not risk getting stuck. We’d already crossed flowing water on the road in a couple of places, so I’m sure North Salt Wash would have been flowing as well.
Instead of going to Sid’s Mountain, we cached all the way back to Price, taking most of the day to get back and stopping at 18 geocaches. Most of them I’d already been to, but I got seven new finds for the day. I’m now considering another trip out there this winter. I’ve done a lot of hiking in the Swell between December and February, and those months are usually perfect for long hikes, requiring less water for drinking and having less chance of water ruining the trip.